A new service to Des Moines was added by the Heart of Iowa Regional Transit Agency starting May 11. HIRTA is a public transit service available to all citizens and visitors in Jasper and surrounding counties.
“The service started and had an impressive first day response. We anticipate the service will experience more growth as the word spreads over the next month,” HIRTA Operations Manager Brooke Ramsey said.
Ramsey said that HIRTA will go to any location in Des Moines as long as the bus can remain on schedule. The cost is $10 for a round trip and will accommodate medical appointments made from 8 a.m. or later and that can be completed by noon. Currently the service is available on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Ramsey said HIRTA tracks all of the trip requests and does unmet need assessments regularly.
“At one point, it was determined that Tuesdays and Thursdays were the high-request days, and then that reduced down to Thursdays due to low ridership. After our most recent assessment it was determined that Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays are now the predominate request, so we needed to change the service to meet the needs of our ridership,” Ramsey said.
HIRTA saw an increased demand in their services in late 2011 when it lowered its fares. Currently, the normal special shuttle fare is $10 round trip. In-town trips are $2 each way and in-county trips are $4 each way. At the same time, the company found an increase need for employees and has since almost doubled staff in Jasper County
Ramsey said HIRTA regularly reviews its fleets and makes adjustments within the region to accommodate any changes in service demands.
“Over the past three years HIRTA has reassigned several vehicles from other communities to our Jasper County fleet in order to meet increased demand,” Ramsey said.
HIRTA was able to use existing staff to accommodate the additional days of service with the Des Moines routes added.
For more information about HIRTA and the new Des Moines service or to schedule a ride you can call 1-877-686-0029 or email erides@ridehirta.com
Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com